Online video consumption moves from minutes to hours

Remember the time when people only watched like a few minutes of online video every week? That’s quickly becoming a phenomenon of the past, according to two new surveys which show a group of heavy online video viewers emerging.

A user survey conducted by TV Guide has 15 percent of respondents saying they watch more than six hours of online video a week. Last year, that number was still at four percent. Sixty-two percent of all respondents said they watch more online video than just a year ago.

Of course, TV Guide’s user survey is somewhat self-selective, which is why it’s interesting that a study by advertising specialist Burst Media has even more impressive numbers: The Burst Media Online Insights survey (PDF) has the number of people who tune in online for more than six hours a week at close to 30 percent. Almost three percent even profess watching more than 24 hours of online video per week!

TV Guide’s survey, which will be presented at the paidContent Entertainment conference in Los Angeles Thursday, also shows that a lot of that growth can be attributed to professional content. Fifty-five percent of the respondents said they tune in to their favorite shows online. That’s also echoed by the Burst Media survey, albeit with slightly weaker numbers. Burst’s survey has 39.1 percent of Internet users watching TV content online, with 49.7 percent watching user-generated content.

And finally, two-screen activity continues to grow as well. Burst Media says a third of online viewers now “often” use the Internet while watching TV.